great

seems like focus is not the problem but still no clue what to do

@deirdresm Player UI is crashing, the app doesn't. Update: I've tried debugging what exactly breaks the UI and why it doesn't crash when playing and figured out that code self.playerViewController?.playbackControlsIncludeTransportBar = false is the issue. But its not breaking it, its fixes it for playing state. For example. Im on a breakpoint in a stopped state (before loading state and before changing content nodes) If I were in a playing state before and i set playbackControlsIncludeTransportBar = false - ui doesn't break If I were in a paused state before and I set it to false - ui breaks but removing that code self.playerViewController?.playbackControlsIncludeTransportBar = false in a didSet for stopped state makes ui break for playing state too. I'm really confused. BUT! I tried changing to self.playerViewController?.showsPlaybackControls = false instead and this way UI doesn't break but apple recommends not to use this property to change visibility cause it will break the ui (it doesn't in my case but I still don't want to use that)

just set your gestureRecognizer.cancelTouchesInView property to false and it works fine

Still its weird how CollectionView with transportBarCustomMenuItems and other overlay subviews are on different Focus Systems.